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I have an ultrasonic humidifier setup. I birthed my first cakes 10 days ago, and aside from aggressive aerial mycelial growth, I got nada. There was a lot, a LOT of moisture in the air, so I added a drying chamber a few days ago (bringing the total to 4). I can't figure out for the life of me what the humidity is in there, though. I bought a couple crappy analog temperature/humidity gauges at walmart a few weeks ago, but those never registered higher than 85% (when I knew it was otherwise). I bought a couple of $15 digital honeywell hygrometers from home despot, but those seem to register 95% no matter what (they said 95% this morning when I opened the case and mist poured out of the aquarium. In a fit of frustration, I turned off the humidifier entirely this morning and went to work. I came back, and voila, I had pins. Clearly there's just too much moisture in there right now. Possible solutions I'm exploring: 1) adding a layer of perlite to the bottom of the tank to help absorb and retain humidity, 2) putting the humidifier on a timer, 3) scratching my whole setup and starting over with a newer tek. I really don't want to do the latter, and will probably end up doing a combo of 1 and 2. Any thoughts/suggestions? I was under the impression that cakes loved humidity, and that 100% rh was fine. There's just so much moisture on the cakes now, though... and my coming home from work and finding pins after turning off the humidifier completely has me skeptical.

Letting the ultrasonic run for an hour every three is working much better. In fact, the rh isn't really any lower, it's just that moisture isn't collecting anymore. Pinning started on a few of my first cakes, so I should actually have something to show for all my efforts in a week or so. Really exciting. I'll post pics soon. No one ever thinks a baby is as cute as its parents...